Author: svaddi

Aand we are back dear friends! Happy Thursday to you all. Hope all of you are enjoying this lovely winter. This year fortunately we haven’t seen much of snow and it has been a winter we midwestern people look forward to. This week we bring to you Spicy Grilled Chicken with Flavored Rice – when i think of eating Indian food at a food truck this is what I like to see. Some grilled meats/veggies accompanied with flavored aromatic Indian basmati rice and loads of condiments on side. Hmmm..Yummy! Two years ago, I visited New York and I had this amazing halal meal at indian/middle eastern food truck. This meal is inspired by my food adventures from my New York visit. The versatility of Indian food is that it can be easily substituted with ingredients based on dietary restrictions. And so my vegetarian friends, you can use the same marinade and use Paneer, red onions, green bell peppers instead of meats. Well, I hope I have tempted you enough. Without further ado, lets jump into the …

It’s been a while since I posted a recipe on desert. I know, sorry you guys… I prefer savory food and love anything that is hot and spicy. So, I dont make deserts that often. Every once in a while, I do develop a sweet tooth for chocolate and soft sugary fruits which I typically enjoy with vanilla ice cream. I just loveeeeeeeeee vanilla ummmmm sooooo goood!!!!!!!!! It’s flavor is like blank canvas that you can paint with the toppings of your choice. So I decided to use my favorite Indian whole spices in this dessert….. Spices and peaches who does that? Well that’s what I thought before I poached my beautiful succulent pears in it. The fragrance of whole spices adds such sweet mild flavor to the peaches you can smell the aroma from each bite. After poaching my pears in the spices I just fell in love with the idea… and took it up a notch and added spice rum to my chocolate sauce. Who’d say no to that??? So without further adieu here you go…. For …

Aaaaand we’re back! Happy Thursday my friends and Umami Kitchen wishes everyone a very Happy Dussera! As usual the best thing about celebrating festivals is the yummy food that is made. And talking about yummy food, today we have for you the delicious Dahi Vada – Savory donuts in Yogurt sauce. It is crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and the yogurt sauce just makes you go ummmmmmm! Whenever inlaws comes over or we go visit them she makes these for me… and this time when she was here visiting us for couple of weeks. I decided to learn and perfect the dish so I could share it with you all. So those of you who are wondering what special to make for this festival, you already have a recipe ready for you. For many of you this may be a completely unheard dish, so here is a little snippet about what it is. Dahi vada is a popular dish across India. It is basically white lentil (urad dal) along with salt and green chilies …

Here we are again! Hope all of you are getting ready to welcome the beautiful season of fall along with all the cold it brings. I’m excited to bring out my warm clothing and try on all the cool sweatshirts, sweaters and jackets. Another cool way of enjoying the chilly weather is to have something nice and warm. Just for that reason today we bring to you Sweet Potato Kale Kimchi Quinoa Patties – a warm patty that you can enjoy for a snack or even a meal. So without further ado, let’s jump into the ingredients and the recipe. Note – The ingredient pictures here show only some of the ingredients used. Please follow the list to get everything you need for the recipe. Ingredients: Makes 12-14 patties 1 cup quinoa mixed (red, white) 1 baked sweet potato 1 cup kimchi 1 small bunch Dino kale 1-2 egg (For vegan option: substitute 1 egg with 2 tbsps of flax seed powder soaked in 4 tbsp of warm water for 5-7 mins. ) 2-3 …

Since we spent this Thursday taking you around Art Prize 2015 held in Grand Rapid in this post. With all the art prize excitement we got slightly delayed in getting our weekly recipe post out… So here you go my friends I have all your weekend parties covered YAYYY!!! with this easy peasy party special recipe all your friends and family will ask for more of this yum dish. This recipe is from my Mom’s Indian recipe stash, Lagaan Chicken curry, a party special dish commonly made in Parsi families. Lagaan chicken curry essentially means chicken curry made in a heavy copper bottom dish (Lagaan). Though a parsi dish, it is quite a delicacy in many places in India including Hyderabad, my hometown. This dish goes very well with rice, pulao or naan/bread. Happy Weekend you guys!!! Ingredients: 2 lbs Chicken 1 large onion finely chopped 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste 2 tbsp chilli powder 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp Garam masala powder 1 tsp pepper powder 4 tbsp tomato sauce pinch of ajinomoto/MSG (optional) 1 cup curd …

Happy Thursday my friends! How are you all doing? Are you eagerly waiting for the Art Prize results too? These past couple of weeks, hubby and I have been enjoying the varied art pieces displayed all over Grand Rapids. In my opinion, Art Prize is the most awaited event after summer seizes to be your muse. Not only people who live in and around GR but also people from nearby cities come to see the extravagant display of art. Artprize, is a radical and open art exhibition spread over 3 square miles in GR over 19 days. It is an NGO investing in promoting art and artists. Two $200,000 grand prizes and eight category awards are awarded at the end. More than $500,000 is awarded in total. The final decision is half decided by public vote, and half decided by a jury of art experts. This year there were about 1550 art entries in total and exhibited at 162 centers. The final voting ended last night and like many of you art lovers I can’t wait to …

Hello dear friends and welcome to the new category on our blog! As many of you know we moved into our new house recently. Hubby and I are excited about all our mini plans and projects that we have in mind. So this part of our blog is dedicated to all our musings about our dream projects that we plan to do. To give you a basic lay of the land – Our house is 2600 Sft and has 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths. On the main floor we have the foyer, a living room with a beautiful antic two way fireplace, powder room, a nice size pantry and a kitchen+ nook that leads to the best part of our house – the deck that looks over our lovely backyard. Upstairs, we have a master bedroom and two additional bedrooms. Our plan is to use one of the extra bedrooms as a guest bedroom and the other one as an office space. The house is located in a pretty little cul de sac but fairly close to …

Hello hello my friends how are you all doing? Well I am glad this work week is coming to an end. As you all know we moved into our new house and like all new home owners hubby and I have been planning and re-planning all our renovation projects. I love working on that stuff and so look forward to the weekends for that. Anyhow with a busy weekend and a busier week coming up I wanted to share a simple breakfast recipe with you so you don’t forget to eat healthy while still being busy. This is a breakfast item that you can plan for your next week or simply make it a mid day snack for all the busy days when you need some extra energy. This week we bring to you Coco Chia Pudding with Berry Nanaicecream! My mouth is already watering writing this post and I hope I have tempted you enough. So without further ado, lets dive into the recipe – For the cocoa chia pudding: 1 cup almond milk …

Happy Thursday friends! To all those celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi today, hope you all enjoyed the festivities and the yummy food :). Hubby & I had a busy yet a very exciting week. We moved into our new house this past weekend!! We spent the whole summer looking at many many houses and at-last found one that hub, me and gizmo loved. Though I should confess that I did not get my dream kitchen, it met most of our criteria..and well gotta compromise somewhere right! However, I am super happy about all the extra space so I can store my props and boards for future photo-shoots. So here’s a glimpse of utter chaos at our rental place before we left…. Oh man I’m so looking forward to collecting more footwear; now that my ban on buying footwear has been rescinded by hubs as there is lot more storage space 🙂 With the new move I have some great plans for the blog and will keep you posted as and when I am ready. Meanwhile, we have …

Thursday it is! How are you all doing? This week we are going to do something different. Instead of sharing one of our recipes I am going introduce you to a food joint I absolutely loved. This place is called ‘Bandit Queen’ and is located in the heart of Grand Rapids on South Division Avenue. This place is unique in the food it offers… primarily a Ramen noodle place that serves Asian dishes too. It is a first of its kind in the south west Michigan area. I had a chance to interview the owner and chef of Bandit Queen and learnt more about what motivated him to open this place. Chef Les Fleming, has been in the world of food making for 7 years and he worked as an executive chef at Rockwell Republic before he decided to open Bandit Queen. Chef Fleming eloquently talked about his experiences previously that motivated him to opening his own place and serve healthy, economical and quick meals to his customers. He said, a lot of his learning comes from his experience …